“When you start a new endeavor, everything comes so fast and you don’t know what’s next,” Ngiam says. “But like on a motorcycle, you get going so fast that the world slows down and your successes snowball, and suddenly you’re moving so fast there’s no such thing as fear. You’re doing things you never expected.”

Ngiam embraces the magical world of Partner’s single sponsor, The Walt Disney Co. Working with Disney executives revealed how the creative storyteller embraces new ideas.

‘Disney has been a world of endless possibilities.’

“The experience The Walt Disney Company has given me boggles my mind,” Ngiam says. “I volunteer with CUNA and the credit union movement to give some of that back.”

Yet he’s also grateful for his early experience in mortgage banking, where a cold-eyed executive was “the only person I was ever scared of professionally.”

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‘It’s a world of endless possibilities,’ says the self-described ‘data dork.’

“He once said to me, ‘Look, I do not pay you to be obsequious.’ He wanted you to give it to him straight. That’s where the fearlessness started.”

A friend persuaded him to move to credit unions because they base decisions on what benefits members. Finding those member benefits starts with being “a complete data dork,” a label Ngiam proudly wears.

If data indicates an initiative can work, he’ll launch a pilot. Successful pilots lead to full-scale investments. The integrated marketing and partnership marketing strategies that emerge contributed to Partners Federal’s strong asset growth.

Happily married and the father to a daughter and two sons, Ngiam believes dreaming big is something credit unions and Disney share.

“Disney has been a world of endless possibilities,” Ngiam says. “That’s what I want to give back, not just to my kids, but to anybody who will listen.”

Who should be the 2019 Credit Union Hero of the Year?

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